Improvement in preparing woody fiber for paper-stock



` UNITED STATES GEORGE EsooL'sELLEEs, OE HAEDIN COUNTY, iLLiNoIs, `Assienoa To PATENT @Erica .PIIMSELP` AND PHILIP M. PRICE. i

IMPROVEMENT IN PREPARINGWOODY Fleet, Foa PAPEasrock.`

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. L10,217, dated October 6, 186,3.

ToaZZ whom/ it may concern.-

Be it known that l, GEORGE Escort, SELL- ERS, of Hardin county, in the State of Illinois, have invented a new and Improved Process of Disintegrating Woody Fibers for Paper, Stock; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The object of my invention is to separate or disintegrate woody fibers 'for paper-stock yby a mechanical process in a cheaper and more thorough manner than has heretoforebeen done. l

The nature of my invention consists in crushing endwise, or nearly so, the fibers of the wood or other material used, and then cutting oif the crushed portion; or, what is essentially the same thing, cutting the ber in mass into short lengths, and by an endcrushing pressure applied thereto producing separation.

In order to render the process clear to the practical mechanic, and to enable him to put it into operation, I will describe some of the many devices applicable to the process, referring to the annexed drawings, making part of this specilication, in which- Figure l represents a plan, part in section, of a machine for crushing and then cutting` off the crushed portozis of the liber. Fig. 2 represents, also part in section, a plan of a machine in which the cutting oii' is done first and the crushing afterward. Fig. 3v shows the nature of the crushing above alluded to.

Similars lettei s on each refer to similar parts.

In Fig. l a log of wood, A, is represented as cut to lit into the metal box B. The box B is rmly bolted to suitable foundations, and is provided with a screw, C, and follower D, at the back end of the log, to enable it to be fed up to the crushing and cutting machine. In front of the box B is a vibrating arm, E, Whose fulcrum at F is also firmly secured to the foundation. The arm E is made to carry a roller, Gr, and back of it a hinged knife or cutter, H. The knife H is held up against the front of the log-box B by a spring, and the end of the log-box is curved to the arc described by the arm E. At I the attachment can be made to any machine capable of imparting a reciprocating movement to the arm E, the length of stroke being limited to passing both roller and knife over the face of the wood, and not beyond the curved or guide end of the box, so that the knife shall liever fall behind the box, and thus be broken.

To use a machineof this form of construe-1. tion, itis only necessary to fill the box B with` a solid log of wood or pieces of wood, and to feed them up to the knife and rolleriby means` of the screw C at each stroke of the vibrating arm; then, in making the forward stroke, the rollervrunning in advance of the cutting-blade crushes in the woody ber, which is then sheared off by the knife H, and on thefbackstroke, the feed having been given to the wood,

the knife will ride over the end of the woodsvf fibers are crushed before being cut off. rIhe action of the roller in twice passing over the end of the wood has a tendency, in addition to the direct-crushing pressure, to bend the fibers in the direction the roller is passing, and in soft woods-such as the cotton-wood, (Populus a1zgulata)-greatly aids in separatin g them; but when the wood is hard and the strain on the machine would be too great, the cutting may be done rst, as in Fig. 2, and the shaving of wood may be guided between two rollers, Gr and G', which will eli'ect the crushing endwise in as effectual a manner as in the first instance, the amount of crushing being regulated by the screws J and J,Which adj ust the distance apart ofthe rollers G and G', and in this case the knife may be a stationary one, as it does not have to yield back as it repasses the end of the wood, the feed being made just before the knife begins to cut. In order the better to preserve the wood thus cut in a perfect sheet, an end plate, K, may be placed for the knife to cut up against or behind it, this plate serving to force the wood which has been cut off into the guides L and L. It is evident that the wood thus forced into the rolls will of itself cause their rotation; but if it is deemed advisable they may be made to rotate by any of the wellknown mechanical devices.

I have described these two general methods of working my process, in order to show that it is not confined to any one special device, but may be accomplished in various Ways 5 and I would still further suggest that the wood might be sawed across the grain into thin sheets, and then passed between any ordinary plain rollers to crush it endwise, or could be crushed by hammering or steady pressure between plain plates. After crushing and cutting, or cutting and crushing, l pass the ber through a common thrashingmachine or wool-picker, more perfectly to separatethe bers one from another.

I am aware that there is no novelty in cutting or chopping into short lengths woody ber in prepa-ration for paper-stock; but all 'the processes heretofore used to reduce the woods ne enough lo be economically operated on by the chemicals used to remove the gum resins, and other substances that cement the bers together, break up, cut, or destroy the uniformity in the length of the bers in a much larger proportion than by my process, which forces or tears the bers apart, reducing them to a cottony mass easily separated, and in such a condition as to be operated on by the smallest amount of chemicals. The strength ofpaper depends much on the length ofthe ber, and its quality on their uniformity; hence the importance of separating Wo dy ber in the most perfect manner previous to freeing it from its gums, `bleaching and pulping it. Whenever practicable, woody bers should be separated when in a green state, or as soon as possible after the timber is felled. The separation is most perfectly made when the timber is cut in full leaf and well lled with sap, and the gum resins are removed with less cost and labor than when the sap is not in the wood. When the wood becomes partially seasoned or dried, it must be softened by soaking or steaming, care being taken not to overheat it, as high temperatures drive the gums into the bers themselves, and they then require more severe chemical treatment to remove them and to bleach the stock. The bers of the hemlock, v

what 1 claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The separating or disintegrating ot' woody ber for paper-making by pressure in the line,

or nearly so, of the ber, substantially in the manner above described.

GEO. ESUOL SELLERS; Witnesses Jol-IN F. LEDBETTER, Louis S. DENNIS. 

